joining me now, hitha prabhakar a retail and economy analyst. good morning, this brand-new survey shows consumer confidence at its highest since july, 2007. what's that say about the growth of the economy? >> well, alex, economists still say that the economy is growing at a slower rate. but look at these numbers. consumer confidence hits at 84.9. that's up from 82.9 which economists were expecting it to go to. some of the reasons why really has to do with the unemployment rate falling. it is, you know, kind of coming down, and also gas prices falling as well as home values prices. those are coming down, as well. >> okay, what about walmart's black friday frenzy in the shopping world? that's arriving early. what's different this year? >> walmart to the rescue. they're going to save us from all of us that don't want to spend any time with our families any longer than we have to. they are opening their doors at 8:00 p.m. trying to get a part of that market share away from target and kohl's. so those shoppers will be able to go to walmart, go shoppi